How dare that country bumpkin think she's worthy of being Mrs. Blanchet! She really wondered what Mr. Blanchet saw in such a backwoods girl.
"Dad, you know very well how Ellinor has been hindering my work. Why are you speaking to me like this? If it weren't for Ellinor, I'd still be a popular actress. I would have been making good money for our family! You should be blaming her, not me! I'm the one who's being wronged here!"
Arnold didn't cut her any slack. "Wronged? Who wronged you? If you hadn't imagined that Mr. Blanchet should have married you, would I have gotten into a feud with the Blanchet family?"
Sheila stubbornly insisted, "Dad, I didn't imagine anything! Mr. Blanchet intended to marry me from the beginning. The engagement gifts he sent were for me. It was Ellinor, that little wench, who was jealous of me! She schemed to seduce Mr. Blanchet and stole my position! You should be scolding her, not me!"
Arnold was too tired to argue with her. "I don't care whom Mr. Blanchet was supposed to marry. All I know is that he only recognizes Ellinor now, not you! I can't scold Ellinor; she's not my daughter! I could scold her till I'm blue in the face, and she wouldn't listen. Enough already; stop harping on about this old news. I'm coming home, so you better get to making me a good old-fashioned pot roast. I want it ready when I get back!"
With that, he hung up the phone.
That phone call ignited all the resentment in Sheila's heart. All the troubles she found herself in now were because of Ellinor.
She had gone from being the envied starlet to an unemployed nobody. It was all thanks to Ellinor!
But now was not the time to curse Ellinor. She had originally made the call to find out when her father was coming back, but instead, she got an earful, and his return time got pushed up.
How ironic!
Not only would her dreams of stardom be crushed, but she could lose any chance of inheriting her father's estate.
Grinding her teeth, Sheila resolved not to let that happen.
While pacing back and forth in her home, she finally came up with a plan.
After rushing to the front door, she opened it and addressed the two women and child.
"Um... hello! I've just spoken to my father on the phone. He confirmed that you are indeed old friends and asked me to invite you in. He'll be back very soon. I'm really sorry about earlier; I didn't know who you were, and I might have come off a bit rude."
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Kiss that Sparked it All